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Monday, November 19, 2007

Leadership- Poll Results

Nation,

Well, the voters have spoken with regards to the Canadian Open Leadership question. A resounding number of you think that GOAT and Furious have the best leadership in Canada. Mephisto comes a DISTANT 3rd.

My thoughts on this result

I can understand how the leaders on GOAT and Furious are looked on so favorably.

However

I wonder if people mistake team talent and performance with leadership. Being at the helm of a great team and exacting victory over teams you should beat IS NOT leadership. That is management. Please see the Cito Gaston picture. There is a reason why he won two titles but never found work after. I do give the man credit for turning an "interim job" into a ten year gig.

I wonder if the smaller teams/cities in this country should have gotten a bit more support in the poll. There has to be some leadership in the Mangina ranks, and General Strike is getting some great performances out of their team. Red Circus is another team that had leadership and played beyond what others thought at Nationals

How did EMU get a vote?

I think the next few years in Canadian ultimate is going to be interesting to watch. Due to the large differences in talent pools in cities throughout Canada, I think it is possible that the second teams from Vancouver (already there) Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa will soon be beating the A teams from Regina, Winnipeg, Halifax and so on. Before I get flamed royally Luker A-Lurker Z, let me say why

-Way larger talent pool-Youth Programs-Training regimens and access to facilities-People move to big cities, and away from small ones-Sooner of later the leadership in the big cities will get it right for long enough to develop programs. It's already happening.-We see the same pattern in most "serious" sports.

I have to agree with Pete on this one. I played on ROY this past summer and, needless to say, it was a much better team than in the last couple of years. We had a good games with teams that killed ROY last year and even got our first win against Firebird in many moons (at Nationals no less).

I also think that the quality of ultimate being played on Toronto's third string team speaks volumes to the system that the Toronto Open scene has in place. For this to work, it requires leadership from all the team captains but also from the top of the chain. When we were having our tryouts, it made a real impression on the ROY guys to have studs like John Hassel or Andy Ouchterlony come and talk to us or, in Hassel's case, play with us. I can't speak for Furious, having never played ultimate in Vancouver, but I voted for GOAT because my experience in the Toronto Open scene has been great and their leadership had something to do with that.

ROY and Grand Trunk rely on the leadership of GOAT and Torontula to help develop their talent pool. I'm glad that people like Amson and Jeters stepped up as solid captains this year, but one could argue they were leaders under a larger leadership picture.

As of 2007, Ottawa is a one team system. The bird has some great captains, but they are espousing the vision of Dave Brook.

Blackfish is a different story, a lot more autonomous. That's why I put them on the list of teams.

One team I should have included was Magma. My apologies to Lorne and his team.